Editorial: After Comey’s firing, bring in special counsel

Monday

May 15, 2017 at 2:01 AM

The following editorial appeared in The Record on Thursday, May 11.

There may be a case for firing James Comey, the now-former director of the FBI. But President Donald Trump did not make the case Tuesday when he abruptly fired him. The dismissal was so abrupt that Comey first learned of it while speaking in Los Angeles as the news broke on television. He first thought it was a joke. It was a not a joke.

The decision to fire Comey was made on the recommendations of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The reasons given related to Comey’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was serving as secretary of state. Over the course of the 2016 campaign, Comey stated Clinton should not be prosecuted — which raised the ire of candidate Trump. Later, Comey went public with news that a new trove of Clinton emails had been found on the computer of Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former U.S. congressman married to Huma Abedin, a close aide to Clinton. That Comey decision, Trump praised. So it makes little sense that Trump would fire Comey in 2017 for doing what he praised in 2016.

So the Clinton emails hardly seem cause for Comey’s abrupt termination. More likely, it was related to the ongoing FBI probe into possible ties between close Trump associates and advisers and Russia.

In Trump’s short letter to Comey, the president writes: “While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau.”

Why, if possible Russian ties had nothing to do with the firing, allude to it in a letter of few paragraphs? There may be no links between the president and Russia. We just don’t know.

We know the FBI is investigating the issue — an issue that has dogged Trump since the campaign. We know the Russians tried to influence the presidential election. We know Sessions recused himself from the investigation because he had lied about having two meetings with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

Yet Sessions supported the firing of the very man directed to lead a probe into possible Russian ties to the Trump team. Which leads the investigation into a limbo of sorts. While this is not exactly akin to President Richard Nixon’s firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox during the Watergate scandal, it is close enough for discomfort.

Congress has limited options. The independent counsel law that gave it the authority to call on the attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor lapsed in 1999. Passing a new version in a Republican-controlled Congress is unlikely. Passing it with a veto-proof majority is nearly impossible.

Congress still can hold oversight hearings and lead legislative investigations. But Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-N.J., told The Record on Wednesday that these oversight committees are presently understaffed for such a time-consuming undertaking. Republicans who control both chambers have to recognize the importance of this issue and join Democrats in a comprehensive, nonpartisan investigation. Perhaps they will.

Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., chairman of the Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russian influence in the 2016 election, said he was “troubled by the timing and reasoning” of Comey’s firing.

Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake said, “I’ve spent the last several hours trying to find an acceptable rationale for the timing of Comey’s firing. I just can’t do it.”

Firing Comey did not end speculation about Russian ties to Trump; it intensified it. While career FBI agents will continue to do their jobs, the person at the top matters. And if the person at the top can be fired at will by the president, possibly because he is investigating the president, that matters to all Americans. It’s not just about the Russians anymore. It’s about our democratic system of government.

Since Sessions has recused himself, Rosenstein should appoint a special prosecutor, and the president must support that choice.